If you’re looking for a party on a Saturday night, just follow the sounds of the Chronicles and their heady jazz-funk-hip-hop groove. The horns were blowin’ up a storm once again recently at Troy’s Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, the perfect soundtrack for digging into a plate of ribs or kicking up your heels for an all-night dance party.

NAME: Chuck Gutta
BAND AFFILIATION: The Hallertau Band
INSTRUMENT: bass

1. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT WAS … Oh boy, Elton John’s Greatest Hits. My older cousin took me to Record Town, and it was $5 or something. I remember he bought an album with a yellow cover and a guy sleeping on a park bench. Selling England by the Pound, I think. Can I trade?

2. THE FIRST CONCERT THAT I EVER SAW WAS … Eighth grade, my dad took me to the Troy Music Hall. It was billed as “The Great Guitars” – Herb Ellis, Charlie Byrd and Barney Kessel. I haven’t been the same since.

3. THE FIRST MUSICAL INSTRUMENT I EVER OWNED OR PLAYED WAS … a Stella classical guitar

4. THE FIRST SONG THAT I EVER PERFORMED IN PUBLIC WAS … the Pink Floyd song “Fearless”

5. THE FIRST BAND I WAS EVER IN WAS … Speakeasy, pretty much the house band at Muddy’s Too in the late ’80s.

Chuck Gutta straps on his bass to anchor the mix of blues and rock by the Hallertau Band when they take the spotlight at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Troy at 10pm on Saturday (December 7). Admission is free.

1. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT WAS … Sgt. Pepper’s. I was in second grade when I first got the album, and I listened to it every night, all the way through. “A Day in the Life” is still one of my favorite songs ever.

Scotty Mac & the Rockin’ Bonnevilles must have gone on a vision quest in the desert recently because they were channeling sounds, rhythms and choice tunes last Saturday night (April 6) at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Troy.

Sure, they had to compete with a contingent of Syracuse University basketball fans watching the Final Four game on one of a half-dozen screens, a group of middle-aged divorcees at the center of the bar having a podcast about their ex-husbands, and a batch of twenty-somethings on a pub crawl dashing in and out.

In the past several months, the Troy Dinosaur BBQ has been building a solid reputation for booking free live music gigs each weekend, and a Saturday night gig by Matt Mirabile with special guest Alison Jacobs may rank as the best one yet.

In the past decade, Mirabile has established himself as one of the finest guitarists in the area, and on this night he was playing at an exceptional level, playing with passion, imagination and vision. His band – Steve Aldi (bass), Joshua Bloomfield (drums) and Jason Ladayne (keys) – followed his muse and brought their own blues verve, too. Add to the mix the dynamic Alison Jacobs, the best local female singer as Metroland duly noted a few years ago, and it was obvious that something extraordinary would transpire.